Baseball | Cougars play three in 24-hour span

Enter playoffs with 25-8 record

Trevor Henderson delivers a pitch for Plainfield South (Bob Narang, Photo for the Chicago Tribune)

The Plainfield South baseball team picked a tough way to close out the regular season — with three games in a 24-hour span.

The Cougars bested De La Salle on Friday night at Illinois-Chicago and didn't get home until after 11 p.m. They turned around and played a doubleheader Saturday, starting with a 9 a.m. game against Carmel on the road. Plainfield South lost the opener, but it beat Prairie Ridge to conclude the busy period.

"It was a tough turnaround for the team, especially in the first game after getting home so late Friday," Plainfield South coach Phil Bodine said.

The Cougars entered the playoffs with a 25-8 record and a 15-6 Southwest Prairie Conference mark — one game behind league winner Minooka. Bodine said a late rush of games in the last two weeks took a toll on his pitching staff and the team's win column.

"If you (told) me at the beginning of the year that we would set the school record in wins and compete for the conference title with a chance to win it, but let it go in the end, then I wouldn't be disappointed," he said.

Sophomore Shane Ritter benefited from the pitching staff being spread thin late in the regular season. Ritter got his first start of the year against De La Salle. He gave up two runs in six innings.

Bodine points to the Cougars' top pitchers, Trevor Henderson and Ryan McQueen, for his optimism about an extended postseason.

Senior catcher John McNulty, a Coastal Carolina recruit, has kept the young pitching staff from unraveling. McNulty had seven home runs and was batting over .400 through the weekend.

"Our No. 2 pitcher, Ryan McQueen, is a big key," Bodine said. "If he continues to pitch like he has all year, we know that we will get good starts from Trevor. He's an all-state-caliber kid. He blows people away with his fastball, and his off-speed pitches are really good.

"Our pitchers don't have to think about what pitches to call with John catching. He settles down everybody."